Stargazing Public Lecture with Prof. René Oudmaijer

Wednesday, 26th February was this year’s annual Stargazing Evening and Public Lecture held here at St Peter’s School. The evening was a delight for all ages and included an exhibition beforehand in the Pascal building, telescopes set up for stargazing in front of Queens, and finally a Lecture in the Memorial Hall.  

The exhibition and Stargazing were thanks to guests from the University of York, the Institute of Physics, and York Astronomical Society, as well as staff and helpers from St Peter’s. There was a remarkable number of planets visible in the night sky and pupils greatly enjoyed looking through the selection of telescopes at Jupiter, Venus and many other planets and constellations.  Pascal building had hands-on activities showing physics, electronics, and robotics at play. Refreshments were also available for those walking from stargazing and exhibition before the lecture began. 

This year’s special guest lecturer was Professor René Oudmaijer, Senior Scientist at the Royal Observatory in Brussels. Prof. Oudmaijer lectured on the topic ‘The Birth of Solar Systems’, where he outlined the most popular theory that scientists currently have which explains how everything from the planets to the stars came to rest together in solar systems like ours. His presentation told the enthralling journey of how scientists have used powerful telescopes and imaging to observe the creation of stars and their many characteristics. He outlined the similarities between our solar system compared to similar planetary structures which have been observed, helping prove why the theories are plausible.  

The audience thoroughly enjoyed the talk and the comprehensive explanation of what is currently known – and not know – about how the solar system formed. There was uproar when pupils in attendance cried out their displeasure at Pluto being downgraded from a planet to a dwarf planet. It was a great lecture, and Prof. Oudmaijer kindly opened the floor for questions afterwards and enjoyed discussing such topics as the implications of the sun getting hotter and where scientists think the rocky planets and the centre of solar systems come from.

Thank you to Prof. Oudmaijer and everyone who joined us for the exhibition and stargazing to help make the evening so much fun.  

More info on Prof. Oudmaijer below: 

Prof. Oudmaijer studied at the University of Groningen, in the Netherlands, where his PhD research involved the fate of stars like our own Sun at the end of their very long lives. After obtaining his PhD, he went to Imperial College in London to investigate the formation of stars and planets. He then moved to Leeds where he headed the Astrophysics Group and is now at the Senior Scientist at the Royal Observatory in Brussels. As an observational astronomer, he investigates the processes that happen very close to the stellar surfaces, such as the accretion onto the star when they grow and the mass loss at the end of their lives. These require the most precise measurements and in order to do so, he uses the largest telescopes and most recent techniques to study these processes. 

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